Have your say on health service changes

Several health services currently based at Tring Clinic could move premises in the new year – and residents are being urged to have their say now.

Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust plans to permanently move the children’s eye care, children’s speech and language and lymphoedema clinics from the clinic on Station Road in Tring to Gossoms End Community Hospital in Berkhamsted.

The Trust claims that the scheme will not only save cash, but will also ‘enable staff to work closer together and coordinate services to meet people’s needs’.

Julie Hoare, the Trust’s director of operations, said: “We want to continue to provide our patients with the best care possible and to do this we need to make sure our services are in the right location with access to great facilities.

“We are also faced with the increased pressures of providing healthcare for a population that is living longer and with more complex conditions.

“To ensure our services are sustainable for the future we need to make tough decisions now that will help the Trust to save money and provide accessible, responsive high quality and high value healthcare across Hertfordshire.

“Before any final decisions are made we are engaging with service users and the general public so they can tell us what matters to them.”

The weekly children’s eye care and children’s speech and language clinics – both on a Thursday – are set to move to Gossoms End.

The children’s speech and language service will continue to support children in school and will also hold an additional drop-in session at Gossoms End once amonth.

The Thursday fortnightly lymphoedema clinic – which supports patients who suffer from tissue swelling as the result of an impaired lymphatic system – is also included in the proposals.

The move means six members of staff will relocate, but it is unclear how many patients the proposals will affect.

Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust is hosting a drop-in session tomorrow (Thursday, December 10) between 12.30-1.30pm for people to discuss the proposals face-to-face.

You can also fill out a questionnaire online at www.hct.nhs.uk/get-involved/ listening/